The glacier that is my front yard

rburg

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OK, this one is unusual for around here. We get rain a lot. And we get snow. We even get a lot of rain or a lot of snow. But this last cycle we got ice. It started as a couple of inches of the pretty white stuff. But then it turned to a light rain. For a few hours.

This is the first one I can remember where I didn't break through the crust. That's because there is no crust, its just ice all the way down to earth. Yeah, its heavy, too. It was pretty bad when after driving about a half hour I had to miss a red light. I hit the breaks and the sheet covering my roof decided to go forward. Most went over the front and on the road, but the last 2 feet or so crashed down on my hood. Well, really it was the 2" of ice that covered and protected my hood.

It all started pretty bad when I heard a lot of talking out front. I looked outside and there was a plow truck. Operated by two idiots who I'm pretty sure didn't have married parents. Anyway, they'd pushed a good 3' berm in front of my driveway. Guess they decided it was doughnut or coffee time so they got back in their truck, backed up and left. Leaving the berm for me to dispose of. Well, I left it there thinking they maybe broke their truck and would be back. Wrong. So about 3:00 I called the city and complained. Bad mistake. They sent another truck to get all the snow he could find and then drive past my house. He did take the original berm away, but left a solid 3' mountain range of ice. My drive is about 30' wide, 3 cars wide and 3 cars long. So now I've got my jeep kind of trapped. With some effort, I managed to get out on the side up the street.

Have I mentioned how much I loathe the plow drivers? I expect to hear any time now what a wonderful job they did. Yeah, at time and a half or double time. Two of them per truck, getting rich all the while making sure their taxpayers need to shovel their way out. They do nothing for the people who pay their salaries. They plow the roads clear and place it over the residents drives.

OK, so now the question. How long does it take to melt this stuff? You can lose a 6" snowfall in a day or two if the temps ever get up above freezing. But that glacier out front is 3' high, and maybe 10' wide. All solid ice. I know, I've been using a pick on it since Wednesday. Yes, I use a shovel to put it all out in the road. I only hope they send the plow guy over to complain about that. He'll be wearing the shovel and maybe the pick, too. So far since Wednesday we've had a couple of days of sun. But its still cold and even the direct sun can't get through the ice.

My neighbor stopped by to check on his house. He's got one of those huge Caddy Escalades. He says 6,000# easy. Not a trace of where he drove in his drive and parked it, nor footprints up to his porch. If that big SUV won't break the ice, its going to take summer and the 4th of July heat.

Anybody remember Little Rock about 8 or 9 years ago? How long did it take that to melt?
 
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State Farm has approx 15,000 employees here so they have BIG parking lots. In some places they have snow piled over 100' in the air. They are using construction equipment to get it that high. There are pools about as to when the last of the big piles will be gone. The smart money is into June.
 
Exactly where did you want them to put the ice? This is part of living in a developed area. There is nothing they can really do with it.
 
Yeah...tough noogies rburg. You could rent a truck and haul it to the Ohio river....and dump it in. Send it to Nawlins.
 
I have pushed snow! It is about what the boss says, Do it fast or Do it right. They manage not to fill a side street with snow, they could do the same for driveways if they are told to take the time! I live rural and the road crews are pretty good about not filling a already cleaned out drive. We help by getting the snow pushed or shoveled back from the edge of the road fo 30' left of the drive. As to melt time, who knows. One of my men as a kid built a snow wall across the street, then hosed it down. 3' high 3' thick wall of ice. It took the city 2 days to send heavy equipment to knock it down, hunks of that wall lasted past the end of the school year. Ivan
 
Have I mentioned how much I loathe the plow drivers? I expect to hear any time now what a wonderful job they did. Yeah, at time and a half or double time. Two of them per truck, getting rich all the while making sure their taxpayers need to shovel their way out. They do nothing for the people who pay their salaries. They plow the roads clear and place it over the residents drives.

As a former plow driver, it's easy to take offense to a statement like this. Would you be happier if they didn't plow at all? Should they take the time to clean out everyones driveway as they plow the streets? Imagine the time and cost that would add up to! People complain because snow and ice gets piled up at the end of their driveways, like they do it intentionally, people complain when plows don't get there fast enough and someone ends up late for work or an appointment. Can you honestly say they do nothing for the people who pay their salaries? Believe me...I am very far from being anywhere near rich!

Sorry about the rant, it's nothing against you personally but that just struck me the wrong way.
 
Living right at the tip (south)of lake Michigan This winter I am beginning to think that "Black Is BEAUTIFUL" And " I HATE WHITE" is becoming the way i think.Hope that all this snow melts slowly or we will have one large swamp that might draw the Cajuns up from N.O.
 
Living right at the tip (south)of lake Michigan This winter I am beginning to think that "Black Is BEAUTIFUL" And " I HATE WHITE" is becoming the way i think.Hope that all this snow melts slowly or we will have one large swamp that might draw the Cajuns up from N.O.

NOPE, that will not work. Only snow I've seen is the little we get here and what I see on TV. I don't see any use for that white stuff.

Going to be down into the 60's today, but will get very cold during the week. I think it will get close to freezing at night for a couple nights. :(
 
When the plow drivers come by here doing 40 mph, rural so they move to get all the school bus routes cleared, and the snow and ice fly taking out my mail box I get almost as upset as when the kids come by on Friday night taking them out with whatever they use now. They block the drive but with the 4X4 it don't matter to me besides we got supplies and retired so we don't need to go out. I do keep one or two spare boxes and post in the garage. And my drive is down to asphalt before the roads, gotta love a snow blower with tracks, only takes a hour to do the 500 foot.
 
your glacier should melt by spring, unless you get a cold spring, in which case it will last until around july 4. sorry, you don't get much sympathy from the icy Midwest.
 
I hit the breaks and the sheet covering my roof decided to go forward. Most went over the front and on the road, but the last 2 feet or so crashed down on my hood. Well, really it was the 2" of ice that covered and protected my hood.

Why didn't you clean your car off before driving? That stuff flying off and hitting somebody could kill them!
 
State Farm has approx 15,000 employees here so they have BIG parking lots. In some places they have snow piled over 100' in the air. They are using construction equipment to get it that high. There are pools about as to when the last of the big piles will be gone. The smart money is into June.

Please post some pictures of snow that is piled 100' deep! I have never seen it piled that high in my whole life!
 
Yeah...tough noogies rburg. You could rent a truck and haul it to the Ohio river....and dump it in. Send it to Nawlins.

In Indiana I believe "they" now consider that pollution and it is illegal. (Before too long, if we keep getting snow like we have been, some of these legal niceties may get... overlooked.)

And yes, I would like to see one of those 100-ft high snow piles too. Around here we might have some that are nudging 20-feet. Might. :rolleyes:
 
Exactly where did you want them to put the ice? This is part of living in a developed area. There is nothing they can really do with it.

True, but they don't have to be jerks about it. My neighbor across the street was out shoveling his front walk and I was around the corner shoveling my side walk. The plow driver flew up my side of the street and threw snow and ice 6 feet over onto the walk I had just shoveled. He got to the top of the street, turned around and came flying down the other side of the street until he saw my neighbor standing there glaring at him. He slowed considerably and plowed the other side of the street - no snow and ice on the walk.
 
Luck of the draw on which driver you get I think. Sometimes it seems like they plow the whole road into the end of my driveway. Other times there's hardly a bump. I actually clean most of the road up and put it in my front yard to try and keep my drive clear after the plow trucks.
 
72 degrees here in the valley as I type this at 5PM. People I still communicate with back east are feeling it, the endless lousy weather and cold are grating on them. I moved out here for just this reason. Oh yeah, for the casinos, too.
 
I'd be very happy if they just didn't bother trying to plow my road. Just leave it to nature. Its what I'm going to do with my drive and the sidewalks. All the pedestrians are walking out in the roadway anyhow.

And I really don't care if I offend the plow drivers. They make a decision on where they put the stuff. Across the road there maybe is a 1' berm. Thats 1' high and maybe 18" or so wide. On my side, where the houses are, its 3' high and maybe 10' wide. For as far as I can see.

Last week I went to a club meeting. We had supper with one of my friends, a retired cop. He's ancient, being the same age as me +1 month. He had a similar story to mine. Except he put some of his berm right out in the road (from where it came). The plow driver came back and raised all kinds of nonsense with him. No effect. So the plow driver called the sheriff. Up drives a deputy. The deputy tried being nasty, but my buddy's been around a time or two and just laughed at him. The deputy made a threat to charge him with littering. He said go ahead, do whatever you wish. Then he threatened to call the high Sheriff himself! Still no luck. His answer was if you don't want your snow back, don't put it in front of my drive. He did have an ace in the hole. Free legal services. His live in is a county magistrate. One who couldn't get her BMW out of the drive earlier that day.

Plow drivers want or expect the public's respect for the job they do. The problem seems to be most of the public doesn't think they do a good job.

As for the mailbox destruction, I drove down one road where there were no less than 6 mailboxes destroyed. The ice there was thrown must have been a wall of ice to behold. It looked to average 30' off the road. At my house they weren't going that fast. But I've got some maybe 10' from the curb. It looks like the driver who did the deed at my house was going slow, trying to put the maximum height ice ridge up.

I'm in a corner house. The city in the past has tried several times to get the corner sidewalk right. They need to stop trying to do things they're bad at. The unfunded federal mandate that required handicap sidewalks turned into a disaster. They replaced my corner 3 full times. The one across the side road 5 times. Most of those had to do with less than PC wheelchair ramps. The last 2 across the road caused by them not draining. It formed what we call the Parkway Ave. glacier. But that effort is now totally wasted because the ice berm also makes it impossible for any pedestrian to use the sidewalks.
 
Have I mentioned how much I loathe the plow drivers? I expect to hear any time now what a wonderful job they did. Yeah, at time and a half or double time. Two of them per truck, getting rich all the while making sure their taxpayers need to shovel their way out. They do nothing for the people who pay their salaries. They plow the roads clear and place it over the residents drives.

Don't bother cleaning the snow that the plows leave at the end of your driveway. Just put it in four wheel drive and blast through...that's what I do. Let God melt it. :D
 
I live at the top of a hill on a dead end street. I am thankful if the plow gets up here at all.

It has been a rough winter. No more than three days between snowfalls, but they have not been heavy. Have not seen the ground since early December. When I take the dog out, I have been admiring the neighbor's stalactite/stalagmite of ice growing from the ground up to his furnace vent. (I can never remember which ones grow up in caves, and which ones grow down.) This one is about as long and big around as a baseball bat. Suddenly, for some reason, it crosses my mind that I have one myself. I go out on the deck to check, and see that mine is over nine feet tall, and right up to the vent. Struggled out through the snow, and knocked that baby down.
 
Plow drivers want or expect the public's respect for the job they do. The problem seems to be most of the public doesn't think they do a good job.

I'm sure you don't get snow like we do, but around here plow drivers are much appreciated. We'd never get anywhere without them on the bad days. A little snow at the end of the driveway is no big deal. My neighbor down the road is retired from the power company. He has a big 4x4 diesel Kubota tractor with a heated, enclosed cab and a front-end loader. Most days, he's got everybody's driveway cleared before they know it. He won't take any money, loves doing it. I usually get him a gift card from the Hess station or I'll just go in his garage and grab his empty 5-gallon fuel jugs and return them filled with diesel. I have good neighbors. :)
 
The snow and then rain we received last week was the worst I have had the pleasure to dig out from in my adult life. After spending an hour or so clearing my 93 year old father's walks, drive and curb, the town plowed a 2 1/2' high x 3' deep wall of what became a solid block of ice at his curb.

It took me several hours to re-clear it over the next two days. I had even cleared the upstream side of the curb for about 20' in the hopes that area would allow the plow to unload itself in that area. That exercise was a waste of energy on my part.

I spoke to a member at the club on Sunday morning who said he had to break out his chain saw and cut it out in blocks.

Come on Spring.

LTC
 
The snow and then rain we received last week was the worst I have had the pleasure to dig out from in my adult life. After spending an hour or so clearing my 93 year old father's walks, drive and curb, the town plowed a 2 1/2' high x 3' deep wall of what became a solid block of ice at his curb.

It took me several hours to re-clear it over the next two days. I had even cleared the upstream side of the curb for about 20' in the hopes that area would allow the plow to unload itself in that area. That exercise was a waste of energy on my part.

I spoke to a member at the club on Sunday morning who said he had to break out his chain saw and cut it out in blocks.

Come on Spring.

LTC

Photograph it then tell the city to pound sand if they get funny about the sidewalk not being cleared. Don't be afraid to use the local media in such cases.
 
Aloha,

I am Greatly Amused reading all this snow/ice stories.

My Minnesota friend(here now) tells me he'd rather have rain, at least it doesn't need to be shoveled.

The Wife is From Minnesota, as she says, "It's a Great place to be From."

Especially Now.

BTW, Temp is in the High 70s

I'm sitting here in shorts, no shirt, bare footed and the fan on medium.
 

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